


Proof of death, or of life.

by lanyon



Category: The Losers (2010)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-19
Updated: 2015-12-19
Packaged: 2018-05-07 12:42:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5456891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lanyon/pseuds/lanyon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Perhaps Jolene should have been more surprised when Linwood came back, with bullet holes in his legs and soaked through with rain. Perhaps she should have been more surprised that Clay had acquired a nemesis, with no subtlety or finesse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Proof of death, or of life.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aj (aj2245)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aj2245/gifts).



Perhaps Jolene should have been more surprised when Linwood came back, with bullet holes in his legs and soaked through with rain. Perhaps she should have been more surprised that Clay had acquired a nemesis, with no subtlety or finesse. 

 

There was a moment when Jolene thought that the love story was over. It was hardly her fault that she was wrong; the weight of evidence was overwhelming and there were twenty-five dead Bolivian children.

She knew her husband was innocent of any wrongdoing. This wasn’t just the blind faith of a devoted wife, because God knew that Jolene was only too familiar with Linwood’s flaws. He was arrogant and only the second-best chopper pilot she knew. His sense of humour was questionable at best and he forgot her birthday every single year and it just about broke her heart that he wasn’t alive to forget a few dozen more. 

There was no funeral, and there were no posthumous accolades and there were no answers. 

That was the worst of it: there were no answers.

That was why Jolene Porteous, visibly pregnant and evidently pissed, went to Jennifer Jensen. 

 

Jennifer Jensen was ten months younger than her brother Jake but, most of the time, she felt about ten years older. Even when they were toddlers, Jen was the one with more sense. She was also a lot more intelligent than her brother, so they were put in the same grade and everyone thought they were twins. After a while, they stopped denying it. It was easier that way; it meant that Jen could protect Jake from bullies (till he grew up substantially taller than her) and it meant that she could shield him when their parents argued (which was more often than not, throughout their preteen and early teenage years). 

Jennifer Jensen got a full ride to MIT but she came home in her sophomore year when their mom got sick and their dad was too useless to support her properly. 

Jennifer came home, visibly pregnant and evidently determined, and Jake joined the Army.

Jake joined the Army, and then he was recruited to Special Forces, and then he died in a helicopter crash with his best friends in the world, leaving Jen and Beth to make their own way in the world. 

(Even though Jen felt like Jake’s older sister, she still needed her big brother.) 

 

Jolene knocked on Jennifer’s door, three days after they had gotten the news about Linwood and Jake. 

They cried, of course, because it was just like those boys to get themselves into trouble they couldn’t get out of. Beth was eight and she cried too, as she struggled to understand that she’d never see her goofy uncle again. 

“We have to find out what happened to them,” said Jolene. 

“We will,” said Jen, grim and proud. 

It was a little known fact that everything Jake had learned about computers, he learned with Jen, and from Jen. 

Clay had no family and Roque might have erupted, fully-formed, from someone’s head, all war and guts and glory, and Cougar’s family were distant and didn’t understand anything beyond the loss of their beloved son.

It was up to Jen and Jolene to figure it out. 

What Jolene didn’t expect was to come down to breakfast, heavy and awkward, to Jen gesticulating at her laptop, a half-eaten slice of toast in one hand.

“They’re alive,” said Jen, and she wasn’t a cruel person, or an untruthful one, but Jolene hated her for an instant. She hated her for the flare of hope that made her heart flutter and that made Linwood’s unborn son kick at her insides. 

“What?” 

“They’re alive,” said Jen. “At least Jake is.” She turned her laptop around and the browser was open to a lurid pink forum page, with _PETUNIAS_ splash across the top in yellow. 

“Are you trying to blind me?” asks Jolene, covering her eyes with her hand. “Seriously, for the sake of my retinas and the retinas of my unborn child …” 

“No, see. This is Beth’s soccer team’s page and this …” Jen pointed at a recent post by one _NumberOnePetuniaFan_. “... this is Jake.” 

Jolene peered at the screen and read a pretty innocuous post. _GO GIRLS rooting 4 u this saturday1_. It was dated from that morning. 

“Wait,” she said. “You communicate with your brother, a Special Forces intelligence specialist, through an underage girls soccer team forum?” 

“I wouldn’t call it communicating, as such,” said Jen. “His grammar is terrible and he’s never actually admitted this is him but I know it is.”

She smiled, though, fit to burst with radiance. “He’s alive and and commenting on the Petunias’ board and I don’t think even Jake would do that if Carlos or Linwood or the others were gone.” What Jen doesn’t say is that, if Jake had lost any one of his Spec Ops buddies, he would be here now. He would have turned heaven and earth to come back to his family, if his found family were lost. “He’s committed but he’s not heartless.”

“Can you figure out where he’s messaging from?” asked Jolene. 

Jen shrugged. “I can try, but he’s usually super careful about covering his tracks.” She flashed Jolene a smile. “He learned it from me.”

 

“It was love at first sight, you know,” said Jolene. It had been over a month since Jen figured out that Jensen was alive, and most likely the rest of the team, too, but she had gotten no closer to figuring out where they were. “I mean, for him. He told me often enough.”

“He’ll get to tell you again,” said Jen and Jolene wondered if optimism was a Jensen family trait. 

Jen’s laptop was open on the kitchen counter, like always, and was running an algorithm using headlines and news reports to track any strange goings-on. There was no obvious pattern but Jen was undaunted. 

“Did you ever think about going back to school?” asks Jolene. 

“Sometimes, I still do. Maybe when Beth’s finished high school.” Jen laughed. “Maybe we can both go together and I can embarrass the hell out of her. Or maybe she’ll join up like her uncle.”

 

“Pooch’ll be a great dad,” said Jen. 

“You still think they’re alive?” 

(Sometimes Jolene lost hope. _NumberOnePetuniaFan_ ’s enthusiastic, poorly spelled forum posts weren’t always enough for her.)

She agreed, though. She knew that Linwood would be a great dad. When the ultrasound technician asked if the father would be coming to her appointment, Jolene said that he was delayed in traffic.

She wondered if the technician even noticed that Jolene used the same excuse every time. 

Jolene was Schrodinger’s widow and she hadn’t opened the box yet. A folded flag was not proof of death, or of life. Algorithms and forum posts were not proof but Jolene had hope and she was her momma’s daughter. 

 

Perhaps Jolene should have been more surprised when Linwood came back, with bullet holes in his legs and soaked through with rain. Perhaps she should have been more surprised that Clay had acquired a nemesis, with no subtlety or finesse.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Yuletide, **Aj**!   
>  Many thanks to S and L for the cheerleading.


End file.
